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Monday 9am - 5pm Tuesday 9am - 5pm Wednesday 9am - 5pm Thursday 9am - 5pm Friday 9am - 5pm

iMap Centre

iMap offer a range of services for both children and adults with Autism, learning disabilities and/or complex needs. Our main centre is based at Barrowmore.

Our day-to-day approach is underpinned by a highly qualified team who provide a wealth of experience, with a warm and supportive feel. iMap stands for individuals Making autism positive and the name was chosen by the parents of our young people. We are a centre of Autism Excellence and provide an outstanding range of autism-specific services for both children and adults. Our day-to-day approach is

underpinned by highly qualified clinical, care, therapeutic and educational staff. We have individualised and progressive pathways to maximise people's independence. Our staff are passionate about and committed to quality care - 'We take the time to do things properly'. Our aim is to provide high quality personalised services that offer the best possible outcomes for children, young people and adults with learning disabilities and autism.

01/05/2026

May's Intro: ✨Meet Clare

Clare began working with iMap as a TA and has progressed in her career to become a Teacher. Clare currently teaches six students and through iMap is working on gaining her Level 6 Qualified Teacher Status 🎓

Clare says:
"The best part of my working day is being able to help my students achieve goals and do things they have never done before. It's rewarding seeing them happy and making a difference to their lives 😊

In my free time I like attending comic cons, love musicals and going to the odd festival. I also love going to the cinema (my degree is in Film and TV production), I'm very much into all things pop culture"

29/04/2026

Our schools have huge amounts of outdoor space 🌿 Both have their own garden areas, and access to our Growing Garden where Peter, our outdoor education teacher often takes groups to learn some horticulture and how to cook on an open fire 🔥

25/04/2026

🥾🌞What a perfect day for a walk! All to raise awareness for World Autism Acceptance month.

We had some great conversations about autism with people we met, and rewarded ourselves with ice cream at cafe ☺️🌞 until next time 🥾👋🏼

20/04/2026

One part of World Autism Acceptance Month we take part in is the National Autistic Society's awareness walk! 👣

Next weekend (25th April) will see a merry gathering of our staff donning their trainers and walking to raise awareness (and acceptance) for autism

If you're interested in joining us you can sign up via the National Autistic Society website and drop us a message. We'll send you the ins and outs of where we're meeting and you can have a wander through the woods with us or plan your own walk

Hope to see you out on the trail 😎

18/04/2026

April's Staff intro ✨ Meet Matt one of our Adult Service Managers

Matt on the position: "No two days are the same, the guys we support genuinely bring joy to my day, the laughs, the smiles, all help get me through the day 😊

I started as a Support Worker in July 2023, never having worked in the care sector. I progressed rapidly while still on probation to keyworker, I have then since progressed to Shift Lead, Team Lead and now Adult Service Manager across the 3 adult services but mainly at the 2 Crewe services"

Matt has completed an impressive amount of CPD during his time at iMap;

"I have gained the following: Level 2 health and social care, PROACT-SCIPr-UK trainer training, Internal Workforce Mediator training, Safeguarding Adults and Children Level 3, Administration and Control of Medications Level 3, Safer Recruitment, Care Certificate Assessor just to name a few bigger ones and I am 60% through my Level 5 Leadership and Management, which I am due to finish in August

🌊🐾Outside of work I go to the gym and swimming 5 times per week and I love getting out in nature with my family and dog. I travel a lot all over the world as regular as possible and I love the theatre"

08/04/2026

👌📖 It will likely come as no surprise to you that communication is one of the most important aspects of working at iMap. One of our brilliant teachers described the communication differences of the students in her class;

"We are starting to use AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) communication boards with words with a student who is non-verbal, growing the selection slowly because too much too soon can overload him.

🌞 Currently this student uses widgits which are a picture based communication tool. He will have widgits on work sheets that accompany the instructions and questions. They are a reinforcement of the words as he struggles to read and prefers the use of imagery to communicate in both learning and his own needs.

We also use lanyards with imagery with a student who can understand speech yet struggles to speak, and finds it frustrating when people can’t understand him. He has visuals of wants, needs and emotions so he can communicate without the struggle and overload. He will communicate verbally when he is with trusted people and is in a regulated mood. When he is not feeling confident or communicative, we use a teddy to help talk to him and use this with humour. E.g. “Would Mr Octopus like to come into the class?". It engages him, makes him laugh and gives him a little more confidence. 🐙

Four of our students in this class communicate well verbally when regulated, although we keep visuals to hand as they can be useful in expressing needs when experiencing dis-regulation. We have also learned to read the body language and demeanour of our students to understand them better and know how they're feeling."

👏We're taking the opportunity this World Autism Acceptance Month to share snippets of the work our teams are doing in our schools and residential houses

01/04/2026

🌞This April we mark World Autism Acceptance Month, and what better way to begin than sharing a little about what we're passionate about; Autism. Below is a video we share in our Autism and Communication training to give an introduction to autism.

If you are having a conversation with someone who would like to learn more about the diagnoses this is a good place to start! ⬇️

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ezv85LMFx2E&t=3s

27/02/2026

🕴️This week saw our Marketing Lead and Learning and Development Advisor head out to Chester to attend a workshop on different business grants and and networking

Big thanks to Dr. Kadja Manninen and Professor Jennie Shorley with , Cheshire Innovation Network and Cheshire West and Chester Council for having us!

We gained invaluable insight into what goes into a well-written bid for funding and where to find the grants to fit the project📝

Another helpful aspect of the day was to think pro-actively about developing a strategy, and understanding the 'why' behind funding we may apply for

10/02/2026

💙☕You may have caught our post on the 19th January, sharing how we're taking inspiration from the Samaritan Brew Monday campaign, a fresh take on Blue Monday

As part of this we sent out fun questions and boxes of nice tea out to our services. We also hosted our very first virtual coffee morning, with more planned throughout the year☕💬 The virtual coffee morning is open to any member of staff who would like to take part, have some company or get to know their colleagues better.

It was such a lovely space to connect as people, not job roles. We chatted, laughed, shared childhood stories… and even discovered that chickens give special clucks to announce they’re about to lay an egg! 🐔✨

A simple brew, a good chat, and a reminder that reaching out really does make a difference. 💛

Here’s to more moments like this! 🙌

07/02/2026

🏟️We were thrilled to be invited to the Mornflake Stadium job fair by the team at The Bridge Job Fairs recently

We met so many interesting people from all ages and walks of life. Notably, we met many adults looking for a career change or stepping back into work after a period of time off 🐛🦋

One visitor to our table has worked in IT his whole life, and was interested in moving to a career within education. We're excited to be even a small part of these sorts of life changing discussions with people, and inspiring individuals to look into a career in social care or SEN schools ✨

04/02/2026

📸Some lovely shots of our teams walks over the January Step-Off challenge this year. We walked through rain, snow, mist...before work, after work, weekends and even logged our steps while at work and on holiday!📸

🐾We walked our own dogs, we walked other peoples dogs and the teams pulled together so much so that we had no idea who was going to win!

Great effort all and keep an eye out for our (much shorter!) Spring Step-Off challenge 2.0 💪

02/02/2026

🙌🥳🏃‍♀️FINAL RESULTS ARE IN!!!

In a whirlwind finish we have our top walkers:
🥇1st place: Bex on an impressive 375,365 steps
🥈2nd place: Darien 364,161
🥉3rd place: Kyle 293,742

Epic effort guys, well done!👏👏👏

Our services really pulled it out of the bag and surprised us with some last minute additions!
🥇1st place: Wood Cottage with an average of 216,210 steps
🥈2nd place: Head Office with an average of 126,624 steps
🥉3rd place: Delamere averaging at 119,768 steps

with solid efforts from:
42 at 112,751
Danebank at 112,127
Barrow school averaging at 97,190
And Fern House with an average of 84,472

🏅With a special shout out to Matt S who absolutely smashed it and very narrowly missed a podium place

🕵️‍♂️An awesome effort from all involved, keep an eye out for our next team challenge in Spring!

Address

IMap Centre, Barrowmore Estate, Barnhouse Lane
Great Barrow
CH37JA

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm

Website

http://www.imapcentre.co.uk/

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